(Yicai) Feb. 3 -- Members of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have put forward multiple suggestions on attracting overseas consumers to spend more during the city's annual Two Sessions.

Shanghai should draw on Singapore's electronic tourist refund scheme and integrate tax, customs, and port information to create an independent multi-language tax refund service mini-program or website, Lee Sheau Fung, chairman of Hong Kong-based Lee Group, said at the four-day Shanghai Two Sessions that kicked off yesterday.

Such a platform can cover map navigation of tax refund stores, a tax refund amount calculator based on real-time exchange rates, online process guidance, and other services, enabling foreign tourists to feel the high cost-effectiveness of shopping in the city when planning their trips, Lee added.

Last year, Shanghai saw inbound tourist numbers surge 40 percent to a record high of 9.36 million from the previous year, according to official data.

"Shanghai should experiment with the 'refund at purchase' duty-free rebate at more shopping malls, have more multilingual volunteers at the port tax refund outlets, and improve the diversion mechanism during refund rush hours to ensure that tourists do not give up on tax refunds due to long queues," Lee pointed out.

"The city should use Tax Free Shanghai as a 'name card' and make it into multilingual marketing material to promote local consumption worldwide," Lee noted, adding that it is necessary to build Shanghai into an "Oriental Shopping Paradise" through various effective brand advertisement methods.

The international consumption service level of Shanghai must be on par with the first-class standards of leading cities worldwide, so local commercial carriers must develop specific consumption aggregation and consumption concepts, noted Huang Zhen, chairman of Yuyuan Tourist Mart Group.

The Yuyuan area will continue to promote the positioning and construction of the "Shanghai International Jewelry Fashion Function Zone," which means that it needs to bring in the world's most complete jewelry supply chain and upstream and downstream firms and provide relevant supporting services, Huang said.

"Yuyuan will showcase, offer experiences and services of top global jewelry products, and facilitate consumer interaction, as well as improve the international consumption functions in the area, including providing bilingual communication in Chinese and English, convenient payment, tax refund upon departure, and fast delivery services for overseas visitors," Huang pointed out.

To continuously unleash the consumption potential of overseas tourists, Shanghai launched a series of brand events such as the May 5 Shopping Festival, the "Shanghai Summer" International Consumption Season, and Shanghai International Light Festival in recent years, promoting international consumption through joint activities of culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev